Day of the Dead: Collecting Bones
November 1st, 2010 by Lydia
The Day of the Dead is one of my favorite holidays. Celebrated the day after Halloween, it’s a time for communing with those who have passed on. In the Philippines, families head to the cemeteries and tend to the graves of loved ones. It’s not uncommon to spend the day there picnicking with the living among the dead. Prayers and masses are offered to relieve the suffering of those who have passed.
The Day of the Dead is a special holiday for me because it’s the only time of year where death is not taboo. I’m not talking gory Halloween horror movie death, but the natural cycle of life and death. The origins of Halloween come from the Celtic holiday of Samhain, which celebrates summer’s end and the beginning of winter.
As natural rhythms are slowing down in many parts of the States, school is just picking up. The upcoming holidays will soon jump start the frenzy with festivity preparations. In the Philippines, it’s monsoon and typhoon season, where floods and winds destroy crops and homes can get swept away easily by typhoon floods.
Collecting Bones
In her book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, the first story that Clarissa Pinkola Estes shares is that of La Loba. La Loba is the collector of bones. She combs the desert in search of wolf bones. She meticulously gathers them and when she has them all, she lines them up just so, and sings over them. She sings and sings and sings until the wolf comes back to life and runs on its way. By singing, La Loba uses her soul voice, singing soul over that which needs restoration, that which needs to be reclaimed, that which is ailing.
The Day of the Dead marks a good time for slowing down and lining up bones. Better yet for collecting them. What has been on your back burner that is asking to have its soul breathed back into it? What of your bones are longing to be unearthed?
The SoulCollage image that accompanies this post is called Harvesting Death. The story of La Loba illustrates that death isn’t finite. It only gives birth to a new cycle. What will your song be that breathes new life into the bones you unearth? What will you harvest from them?
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